The Smell of Summer in Skopje
Freshly cut grass in the early mornings. Hamburgers sizzling on the barbeque. Damp towels drying in the sun. These are some fragrances that always signaled the arrival of summer for me growing up in the Sacramento Valley. Tea. That is the perfume that heralds the official arrival of summer for me here in Skopje.
Tea? I'm sorry, what? Did I really just say that?
When I'd ask the local baker or taxi driver about the силен мирис (strong aroma) filling the summer air the response was always, "Leepa. For tea."
Tea? I'm sorry, what?
Totally confused and convinced that I wasn't communicating well, I took a picture of the trees to show them. Several, actually. "Becky" at the local burek shop just looked at the images, smiled and said with a twinkle in her eye, "Yes, Karolinche. These are the Липа trees... we make tea from them."
Who knew! For some reason it never occurred to me that tea wasn't just made from herbs and such but from actual tree blossoms. She was totally bemused by my mystification but I was happy to learn something new about this special city and culture.
The Linden (aka Tilia) trees line the streets here in Skopje and their heady scent is reminiscent of gardenias, lilacs, lilies or other florist favorite. It envelopes you and its bouquet gets into clothes and hair and stays with you long after coming indoors.
Yes, summer has arrived here in Skopje. And next winter when the ice is thick on the ground and the sky heavy with snow, I'll only have to wrap my hands around a steamy mug of linden tea, close my eyes and breathe in deeply the lovely warm scent of summer and smile.
2 comments:
When we can get our hands on it, we make some mighty fine sassafrass tea. It doesn't matter to us whether it is the bark or the roots. I never thought to make tea from blossoms.
Truly, there must be something in the air. Vicki Archer on her blog, frenchessence.blogspot.com, June 10wrote about the linden trees and tea, and on my blog I have the music "The Linden Tree."
Here in the states I have not seen Linden tea, and I asked a few people and they had not either. We do have Linden trees somewhere in America though. I wonder if you can dry the blossoms and have the tea all year, as other teas.
Perhaps I should email Lipton.
I wish I could smell the scent; from what I read it is devine.
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